I took these casual walk-around pictures in Santa Cruz Pier the day before Mother's Day. On Saturday, I did my first rehab hiking 2 months after ACL surgery in Henry Cowell State Park with flat trail and it was a great feeling. And at night we visited the Santa Cruz Pier where we could spot the Santa Cruz Boardwalk from the pier.

In traveling light, I used my Sony mirror-less instead of Pentax. And I have used this lens on Pentax K-x, K20D and K-5 before. It is more well balanced on the Pentax. This zoom lens gets a good recommendation from Hin but I still missed my old faithful with cheaper and likely lesser known manual zoom lens with the Kiron 70-150mm f/3.8 with a 2x tc

Sky Windowby Hin Man, on Flickrshot with a Sony E 35mm f/1.8 prime strolling to find potential dinner place for pre-mother's day celebration. We ended up going home for dinner instead. I made dinner with wife together -- a big mistake as I scrambled when hungry.

I woke up very happy on Monday still thinking how good my birthday was and how great we did on the Mother's Day 2017 with visit to a Guitar Center with drums, guitar, piano and others for fun play. I doubt if Monday was anything that could top my weekend experience. But this picture gives me hope as it is a double down kind of picture that relates one light after the other. I will name it 'double down'

Hope you like my walk-around pictures before Mother's Day 2017.Likely all were shot in f/3.5 with the zoom lens. Most were shot in 150mm and I zoom in to frame in wider view in some of them. The lens is a one-touch zoom and the smooth focusing ring allows me to snap subject into focus. Focusing takes some guesswork as my eyes are plagued with aging decline.

I forget the film simulation that used for the above picture, it is likely using Kodak Ektachrome or Kodachrome 64 professionalFatherly Walk With Loveby Hin Man, on Flickr

I have this sleeper for a long time, I was biasly thinking of the Vivitar/Kiron copy of 70-150mm f/3.8. I have been unfair to the Tamron Adaptall-2. I almost sell my copy for a meager $39.00. That didn't last when I went for a work out in Homedepot on easy flower pictures. The Tamron 20A bests the Kiron Vivitar in the close up shots and better bokeh. The Kiron is very cold in the tone while the Tamron is still cold but it works well in bokeh. Sharpness goes to the Kiron and no doubt about that especially wide open shots.20160605-DSC01548by Hin Man, on Flickr

I have few pictures to share. All are not taken with my Pentax K-3/K-5 gear but rather my lighter and compact travelling camera with Sony A6000 and a cheap $120 MF lens with Zonlai 25mm f/1.8 in E-mount. Both are processed in Nik Collection. The b&w is done strangely in Agfa film while the color one is likely done in Portra 160 VC along with Detail extractor. Nik collection has other components and I have used mostly in this order

When someone praises my photos and asks me about my editing approach, I feel flushed when I see your comments. There is not much secret in my life or photography -- I love to share when opportunity comes and it is an honor to share my amateur approach in photography. I use the word 'amateur' as I don't like to learn from one master but to learn from others and have my personal touch on things -- be it right or wrong as art form comes from one's vision and not have a fix set of rules that limit creativity. I don't learn from a set of youtubes or a master like Ansel Adam but I experiment in trying it out cluelessly until my approach in editing stick to some consistence. I spend my most time in editing. Editing and post processing is required in all of my photos and sometime I wish there is a camera or a set of techniques that I can do without editing -- I have not found the secrets yet and not even close. I do go through a laborious and painful and joyful process in editing. Processing brings my photographic vision alive and sometime a different vision is rendered after processing -- a surprisingly refreshing result when that happens.And I hate seeing myself taking multiple shots on the same scene. I like to re-train myself as if I am still shooting film and be content with 1 to 2 shots on the same view before I move to the next scene. I rather have a bad picture and learn from it then spending the countless hours in picking 1 out of 10 similar pictures. I despise people gun-shooting a scene or the same subject with 5 to 11 frames for second to fill the buffer to show how fast their awesome camera can shoot -- I hate it.

My b&w pictures usually go through some editing in LightRoom and then go through Nik Collection using Silver Efex Pro. I highly recommend Google Nik Collectionand please give that free download a trial. It is an eye opener for me as I like to experiment on the Modern Film simulation with various films. The choice of film simulation boils down to the mood of the moment during editing. My default go-to film simulation is Fuji Neopan Acros 100 , followed by Kodak BW400CN, TMax, TriX, and sometime I like stronger contrast with the Ilford. On the odd time, I go with plain Lightroom and start from scratch in setting saturation to 0 and tune the tone curve to my liking on shadows and highlight detail.

Will share more when I think of something critical. Please let me know if I am veering off much from your question. Hope this helps you. We should all share what works and what doesn't.

I edited both pictures but the b&w is my refinement and vision in flipping the action from left to right for comfort of viewers. It is more natural for me to view things from let to right. I can't fathom any retoucher will see the way that I see my pictures. But I do think professional retoucher will know more how to best a picture to another level. I am open to find a retoucher for trial.My brother in law is a professional shooter for wedding and he hands his work to his company and the rest goes to retouchers as well. I know that is likely the most logical way to make money in scale. As an amateur and enthusiast, I find it not as fulfilling because I find the process in editing photos the most rewarding piece in the process. Taking picture is key but the editing part to mold the final picture into the essence of the photo takes the beating out of an ordinary photo to a great photo and I will be empty without it. Maybe when I finally shoot photos for a living, it will be a very different story.

But I doubt if majority photographers will not have a problems in letting someone retouch their own photos. It is unless someone you know in retouching is better, I will feel uncomfortable if I let someone else retouch my own pictures without knowing the retoucher work. Nobody thinks alike and it is not a partial match in style in the retouching process, I would rather do it myself if I can afford to. What if I like the picture darker and softer than that of the retoucher. Any minute difference will create a different mood and essence on what the picture is shot for. In my view, a good picture always have a tone of color, a view with brightness soothed to the tone and hue, luminosity and saturation on all channels meticulously adjusted for the spirit of the picture. I know I may be exaggerating here but that is roughly what I am thinking.

I will never say no to anything as I am forcing myself to think out-of-the-box on ideas and recommendations on the role of retouching one's pictures by others.

My widest lens is my Pentax DA 15mm f/4.0 but when I go traveling light, I use my mirror-less gear with Sony and currently I simply don't have an ultra wide angle lens that I can count on. Instead, I am using a tiny sensor with an action camera for the occasional need of ultra wide angle. I am not proud of it as it has distortions all over the edges. I have an old version of LR 5.7 on my macbook and pc and the only lens profile closest to Sony Action Cam AS100VR is the Sigma ultra wide or the GoPro Hero 3; both did a worse job in correction and I have not figured out the right manual correction. I have asked Justin to share the profile if he manages to find one. Unfortunately, he seldom shoots still photo with the video gadget. Mine is the older copy gotten in 2015 when I got more trips on skiing and I found the purchase right for my money at the time comparing to Hero3 as it works with a remote control worn as a watch to Rec/Stop on video or take Interval pictures continuously in 2 sec intervals. And the OSS with image stabilization was absent in Gopro Hero3. I have used Sony Action Cam quite a bit but it has no tuning of anything and there is no manual adjustment to the 170 degree shooting. I wish it has an adjustment for a narrower view and with less distortion. I don't quite know how the 170 degree translates to focal length in 35mm term. It is wider than any of my lens in possession.

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Welcome to Hin's Photo Corner, this is my learning blog on photography, blogging and advertising. And I hope you enjoy your visit. For contact, please comment in blog post or email me directly hintheman at gmail.com.